DFA to drop UN bid of Santiago

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is poised to withdraw, supposedly for "lack of time," the candidacy of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago to the United Nations’ international tribunal that will prosecute human rights violations in the former Yugoslavia.

Acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Lauro Baja Jr. said recent political events had nothing to do with the withdrawal of Santiago’s candidacy.

A week ago, Baja said the DFA had been working double-time to lobby support from foreign governments for Santiago’s bid to be one of the UN tribunal’s 14 judges, because the election had been moved from May to March.

Santiago’s bid was endorsed by ousted President Estrada. She and 10 other senators incurred the people’s ire by voting against the opening of a second envelope containing potentially damaging evidence in the impeachment trial of Mr. Estrada.

The Philippine mission in New York filed Santiago’s candidacy to the UN tribunal last Dec. 18.

Meanwhile, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon, being a career ambassador, will have to get a foreign posting, while 29 envoys whom Mr. Estrada appointed, will have to return home within 60 days.

Baja said it will depend on Mrs. Arroyo where to assign Siazon when he comes back from the United States where he sought treatment for a prostate ailment.

In another development, Baja reinstated Assistant Secretary Victoria Bataclan as DFA personnel and administrative services head, and DFA spokesman and protocol chief George Reyes, whom Siazon both relieved last Friday for drafting an anti-Estrada statement.